Category Archives: Software

The always friendly people at WinX have let me know that they are having another giveaway for Halloween. This giveaway is for Windows and Mac, and you have about five hours left to download it (my fault, I’ve been behind as usual in dealing with emails). They usually extend the giveaways though, so you might be able to nab it later.

Head on over to their site and download it now! (really nice Halloween graphics)

Today Geohot released his latest jailbreak which releases most iDevices into freedom land. It will jailbreak iPhone 3GS (Old bootrom only at this point) , iPod Touch 3G, iPad, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G on iOS 4.0, 4.1 and claims also to jailbreak future official releases. According to Engadget, this release has angered the Dev team. After reading the story I do understand why, however it’s still funny that there is jailbreak politics. At this point it is windows only, so either fire up Bootcamp/Parallels/vmware fusion/VirtualBox or use a pc. It uses the same way to jailbreak as back in the day by holding the power and home button to enter DFU mode. Anyways I already jailbroke my iphone 4 running 4.1. At this point the only complaints I have were that initially limera1n and Cydia had white icons, but after updating Cydia everything is back to normal. Now I can reinstall my paid applications in Cydia! Below is the link to the limera1n website.

Update: I saw a user that landed on my site from google searching on how to use Cydia on iOS4.1 after installing limera1n. I’m assuming (s)he couldn’t figure out how to install Cydia. To install Cydia after you jailbreak, open up limera1n and tap on Cydia, then tap the Install button on the top right of the screen.

Today I received an email from Nova Development, the developer of my favorite virtualization software Parallels. Today they released version 6 of their software that promises 80 new and improved features. I have purchased the update, and plan on testing out their claims in a review. Let’s see if Parallels 6 is as good an update as 5 was. Hopefully 6 gets rid of the annoying dock icon problems that annoyed the hell out of me in version 5.

Below are the features noted in the email:

Over 80 New and Improved Features Including:
NEW – Take advantage of all your Mac’s power with an all NEW 64-bit engine
ENHANCED – Boot Windows 41% faster than Parallels Desktop 5
ENHANCED – 3D graphics are nearly 40% better than Parallels Desktop 5
ENHANCED – Run even more games and 3D applications with DirectX 9.0c/9Ex and Shader Model 3 support
ENHANCED – Install Windows XP, Vista or 7 in 3 clicks
NEW – Use OS X keyboard shortcuts in Windows applications
ENHANCED – Reduced CPU usage improves notebook battery life
NEW – Includes both Mac and Windows Anti-Virus software from Kaspersky
(90-day subscription)
NEW – Use Spotlight to search for Windows programs
NEW – Immerse yourself in games, music and videos with 5.1 Surround Sound
Plus – 90-day money back guarantee
And much, much more

So I have been using Firefox 4 Beta 1 on my friend’s laptop (Macbook pro running OS X), and I can say it’s a move in the right direction! The first thing I noticed was it launches faster than before, this might be because he doesn’t have so many extensions. The next thing I noticed was the Site Identity button and fav icon have become part of the address bar, which makes things aesthetically nicer. Also aesthetically it looks more boxy, which makes me feel its leaner and faster. Finally on the aesthetics, the addons now open in a tab instead of a window, which I find neat (you can access it by typing in about:addons in the address bar). Next they added a progress indicator that loads a pie chart on each tab that is still loading, this allows you to see how much of the page is left to load. Finally it loads pages faster, more like chrome. Below are comparison shots of the site identity buttons from Firefox 3 and 4, and a snapshot of the pie chart progress indicator.

To conclude the 1st beta of Firefox 4 shows a real step forward and has been really stable with no crashes in the couple of days that I have used it. If you haven’t downloaded it yet you can get it for all three major Operating Systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) here.

WinX has given me the opportunity to offer 10 licenses to my readers. Since I don’t have many (haha) that should not be too much of a problem. These are licenses are for the full version of the great DVD ripping program. DVD Ripper Platinum supports decrypting the latest copy protection methods, which makes it easy to rip the latest movies. To get a free license from me simply just reply in the comments in this post, with your best joke, or just tell me something funny that has happened to you. The first 10 people get licenses! ENJOY!

Today was the third Sunday of June, which means it was father’s day around the world. I made sure to contact my father and wish him a happy father’s day and let him know that he is appreciated. Sophia from WinX contacted me again and let me know that they are promoting their new converter software by giving it away on father’s day. Just by looking at the specs, this video converter can just about convert any file (it even supports Blu-ray .mts, m2ts files) to any output including preconfigured outputs for media devices (iPhone, iPad, Sony PS3, Xbox 360, Zune HD, Blackberry, etc). It has the a similar interface as their other software, so if you have used any of their software it should be familiar. I think the Icon is really snazzy and reflects well with OS X’s great icon design. I would suggest that the interface be made more Mac like as reminds me of boilsoft applications on Windows. I know this application will come in handy because I do a lot of converting, especially when devices don’t support specific HD containers such as MKV.

WordPress 3.0 has been released, and is a nice upgrade. So far I have seen that it looks better (admin page) and has a whole slew of new features. It also has retired the kubrick theme and replaced it with Twenty Ten. I really liked the presentation of the Twenty Ten theme, so I am now using it. Give me a couple of days to work out kinks, integrate adsense (I have to use ads sorry!), and add my personal touches. If you have not already upgraded to WordPress 3.0, please do so asap, all it takes it the click of one button.

A couple of days ago I wrote a post about a bug I found in Photomatix Pro 3.2.9 along with a Youtube video. I also emailed HDRsoft to let them know of the issue. A day later, they replied to me and invited me to use the new Photomatix Pro 4 Beta 2. I was thrilled and found it really nice of them to do so. So here is a quick run down of what I like about V4.

It has a new sexier icon

It loads instantly

They fixed an issue I noticed with not remembering the last location files were opened from and processed images that have been saved.

They fixed the bug that I was complaining about, where it does not apply any preset.

The best feature is the new preview of the presets at the bottom (makes picking a preset much easier)

So far so good, I plan on using it more and helping out with the beta. I hope my license transfers over from V3 when the final version is released.

Ps. I have not posted a screenshot, video, or icon because at this time it is a private beta and I was asked not to. As soon as I get permission I will do so.

When I moved into my new apartment this month I noticed that the phone line outlet was on on opposite side of the apartment relative to my computer. Since I was using a Cat5 cable to connect before it would not be a viable solution in the new apartment. I ordered an Airport Extreme card for my Mac Pro, but in the meantime I had no method to connect to my wireless network. I did some googling and found that there is a way to use your iPhone as a wireless adapter. The software is called WSID and requires a jailbroken iPhone as well as some ssh knowhow. There is a readme file with instructions so if you can follow them then go for it. This little hack works well and kept me connected to the internet while I waited for my Airport Extreme card to arrive. Below is the link to the file, which is tiny by the way (13.5kb).